Books to Look Forward to from Bitter Lemon Press

When Judge Larocca is the subject of corruption allegations, Guerrieri goes against his better instincts and takes the case. After all they had been at school and university together. Helped by Annapaola Doria, a motorbike-riding bisexual private detective who keeps a baseball bat to hand for sticky situations, he discovers the judge's links to the mafia. Larocca is blind to the immorality of his actions but Annapaola makes sure that justice is done, perhaps not in the most orthodox way. Of course Guerrieri cannot stop himself from falling for Annapaola's exotic charms. The novel takes the form of a suspenseful legal thriller but it is much more. It is the story of a judge who , to quote Brothers Karamazov, "...lies to himself and listens to his own lies, so gets to the point where he can no longer distinguish the truth, either in himself or around himself." A man always looking to justify his evil and corrupt behaviour, perhaps an apposite metaphor for Italy itself. A Fine Line is by Gianrico Carofiglio and is due to be published in April 2016.

Betty Boo is by Claudia Pinerio and is due to be published in January 2016.  When a Buenos Aires industrialist is found dead at his home in an exclusive gated community, the novelist Nurit Iscar - Betty Boo to her admirers-is invited to cover the story by her former lover, now the editor of a national newspaper. Working with the paper's veteran, but recently demoted, crime reporter and his hapless junior, Nurit uncovers a trail of murders that will lead all three to the highest echelons of power in Argentina. In Betty Boo Claudia Pineiro combines a chilling story of murderous revenge with a warm and funny portrait of friendship and love in middle age.

While on a business trip to Kobe, Tsuneo Asai receives the news that his wife Eiko has died of a heart attack. Eiko had a heart condition so the news of her death wasn't totally unexpected. But the circumstances of her demise left Tsuneo, a softly-spoken government bureaucrat, perplexed. How did it come about that his wife-who was shy and withdrawn, and only left their house twice a week to go to haiku meetings-ended up dead in a small shop in a shady Tokyo neighborhood? When Tsuneo goes to apologize to the boutique owner for the trouble caused by his wife's death he discovers that she led a double life. He eventually confronts her lover, and, in a moment of panic, kills him. The police are stymied, however Tsuneo, the brilliant bureaucrat who usually leaves nothing to chance but is now hunted as a common murderer, feels the pressure and starts making mistakes.  A Quiet Place is by Seicho Matsumoto and is due to be published in June 2016.